Dubai: A Pakistani depressed over debts in Dubai drowned his two daughters and emailed his wife to wish her a better life before killing himself, reports in the emirate said Wednesday.

The 40-year-old strangled and drowned the girls, aged two and seven, in the bathroom of the family`s villa on Sunday night before drowning himself in the compound`s swimming pool, the Emarat Al-Youm newspaper said.

The man had been suffering from depression due to mounting personal debts and was having problems with his wife who was attending a concert at the time of the deaths, the daily said.

The National newspaper said the man had sent his wife a message saying she deserved a better life than he could offer, and that he decided to kill the daughters because he could not leave them with no one to care for them.

The family`s Ethiopian housemaid said she went to bed at 10:30 pm, and the wife`s brother was reportedly asleep in the villa.

Police found the elder daughter wearing a nightdress and lying in a flooded bathroom, while the second was wrapped in a blanket and placed in bed after suffering the same fate, The National said.

Police were still investigating the tragedy and a post-mortem examination was to be conducted on the three bodies in the near future, the newspaper added.